


The Offer

by Aegir



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, Post-Black Panther (2018), Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-21
Updated: 2018-04-21
Packaged: 2019-04-26 00:56:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14390757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aegir/pseuds/Aegir
Summary: Colonel Rhodes gets a visit from the King of Wakanda.  Takes place between the end of Black Panther and the mid-credits scene





	The Offer

**Author's Note:**

> So 'Black Panther' is really great. I feel I'd probably need to do a ton of research before I could do justice to Wakanda in fic. However there was one small idea I wanted to write out before 'Infinity War' makes it non-canon.

James Rhodes suppresses the sigh of relief with which he lowers himself into his desk chair.  There is nobody else in the room, but he does not want to slip into the habit of showing weakness here.  He does not want his juniors believing he is still in the service because others felt sorry for him. He earned his rank and, however little he likes desk duty, he wouldn’t still be here if he was not certain he could still do a good job.

But it’s hard.  Even now he needs two sticks and distances that would once have meant nothing tire him.  Equally hard is the knowledge that his future may be entirely behind a desk. Tony had talked optimistically of being able to reconfigure the War Machine suits, but though they’d worked together on it they haven’t found a way to let him truly control the suit, rather than being a passenger, without the balance being thrown off by the limited control of his legs.

He draws a folder towards him and begins work. It’s going to be a boring day.

He could hardly have been more wrong.  A visit from the King of Wakanda is not a normal mid-morning interruption.   It’s not his first meeting with royalty, but he prefers them not to walk in unexpectedly.

“Please sit down, Colonel,” the King states.  Unsurprisingly he’s wearing a suit instead of a Panther costume.  “I am not here on state business.”

Ah.  A personal issue?  Or a costumed issue?  Rhodes is out the field, but he still has a pass for Avengers HQ.      He lets the King continue to do the talking, it’s generally the best way to learn information.  

“First of all, I would like to thank you for your silence regarding matters to do with our previous meeting.”

“Feline matters, I assume.”  That the King of Wakanda was clearly enhanced and liked to run around in a high-tech cat-suit, was clearly senior-level information, but in view of his personal circumstances Rhodes had decided it was someone else’s job to report it higher up the command chain.  That CIA spook Ross for instance.

“Yes.  In addition we were, after a fashion, teammates, even if my reasons for being part of the fight were misguided.  When I was updated on your situation it seemed only right to contact you. ” 

“Your Majesty, it’s nice that I’m in your thoughts, but I still don’t know why you are here.”

“I am here to offer you medical treatment.”

Rhodes’s first thought is to question what medical treatment Wakanda can offer that could be better than he is already getting, but in the next moment he remembers that cat-suit, and wonder exactly what else Wakanda may have up its sleeve. 

“I have the best treatment there is.”

“The best you know of, I am sure.  In Wakanda we have alternatives.  I cannot promise a full recovery, but I can tell you our team are very talented.”

He’s wary.  He’s fearful of being taken in by a mirage ‘miracle cure’.  But the King of Wakanda is hardly going to turn out a con artist.

“I’d need to clear it with my superiors.”  He doesn’t anticipate difficulty however.  There has suddenly been a lot of discreet talk about Wakanda recently: reports of a quickly suppressed crisis following the previous king’s murder; diplomatic activity at the UN; a lot of speculation, some of it fairly wild, about secrets the country has been keeping.  He will be actively encouraged to take up the offer and, while balancing his duty to his country with respect for any confidentiality requests the Wakandans might make may be a tricky tightrope, after lengthy experience at balancing a military career with knowing Tony Stark he is confident in his own ability to manage this.  “Assuming they have no objection, then I’ll accept with thanks.”  Already there is a dangerous seed of hope growing that Wakanda might actually have something to offer.  He will have to be careful about that.

The King nods.  “That was all I expected at present.  I will not take up too much more of your time, Colonel.  I do have one more thing to ask you, however.”

Right.  There’s always a price tag.

“Did you ever meet a Naval Officer named Erik Stevens?”

This was not what Rhodes had expected.  He knew Stevens’ reputation, but would not have thought it likely he had any history with Wakanda.  Wakanda simply wasn’t that important.  At least not to his knowledge.

“Briefly,” he says, quite truthfully.  Their meeting had been unremarkable, although what he had heard of the man was memorable.

For the first time in their short acquaintance the King appears slightly hesitant.  “I may ask you more another time.  For private reasons.  Good day, Colonel.”

What, Rhodes wonders, was that about.

**Author's Note:**

> On Killmonger being an officer – it’s been pointed out to me that he is said in the film to have graduated from the prestigious Annapolis Academy and that means he would have been guaranteed an officer’s commission.


End file.
